A deputation of gentlemen connected with the City. of London
had an interview with Lord John Russell yesterday, for the purpose of ex- plaining to the noble representative of the City the mischievous ten- dency of the London Corporation Reform Bill, and the hurried manner in which the second reading had been put down for the ThUrsday after the bill had been read a first time only on the Tuesday. The case was explained by Mr. Towle, Mr. Lawrence, and Mr. Jones ; Mr. Finlay banding in an historical account of the City. It was shown that the limitation of the franchise to the ten-pound resident householders would cut off all connexion between the City and the most eminent and in- fluential members of the Corporation, who belong to it through the guilds, but reside in the outskirts. That the election of the Sheriffs is transferred from a numerous and independent body, representing com- merce and the industrial arts, in the case of the London Sheriff to a body of twenty-five members, who might be more easily influenced than the 10,000 Liverymen, and in the other case, that of the Middlesex Sheriff, probably to the Crown. This point, as well as others which followed, made an evident impression on the noble Member for the City ; he seemed not to have perceived all the anti-popular tendencies of the bill, though he said that some objectionable points had already caught his attention. Lord John remarked that the bill had not been read a second time on Thursday, and he undertook to speak to Sir George Lewis, and to secure a sufficient interval for a thorough consideration of its provisions.
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